How to fix the most congested and busiest Tri-Cities intersection in Richland

Richland aims to simplify one the most congested intersections in the Tri-Cities.

Each day, nearly 42,000 vehicles pass through in the intersection at the southern end of George Washington Way where it meets Aaron Drive and Columbia Point Drive and connects with Highway 240 and Interstate 182.

George Washington Way is the most highly-traveled city street in the Tri-Cities, said Richland officials.

And before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Columbia Point intersection had the highest number of crashes and the longest waits in Richland, said Public Works Director Pete Rogalsky.

The city council plans to hire Spokane firm H. W. Lochner to redesign the intersection ahead of what city officials estimate will be a nearly $11 million project to make it safer for both pedestrians and drivers.

Along with offering alternatives on how the intersection can be designed, the firm will be responsible for analyzing how much it will be used now and in the future and engaging the public in that discussion.

The nearly $195,000 to pay for the planning process is coming from federal grants and about $47,000 in taxes paid when people bought homes.

The contract is the latest effort by the city to improve the busy intersection. Richland looked into the issue in 2015 including presenting options that would have stopped Aaron Drive before it reached George Washington Way.

The proposals raised concerns from the Tri-Cities Academy of Ballet and Music, which faced possible demolition under a proposal to connect Aaron Drive directly to George Washington Way with its own intersection.

A Herald survey found most people were in favor of widening George Washington Way from its seven lanes to 10 lanes.

Plans for the intersection

When Richland officials started looking for a company to help with the project, they searched for one with a history of working with the Washington state Department of Transportation, said city officials.

The state will need to sign off on any changes to the intersection.

While they will look at previous plans for changing the intersection, the city doesn’t expect to have any recommendations from the Spokane firm by the end of the year.

The city’s Capital Improvement Plan lays out the improvements as two separate projects with the bulk of the work still two years out in 2023. The city expects federal funding along with other grants to cover the bulk of the $8 million cost.

While planning hasn’t started, they city officials expect it will require getting property rights to make the improvements needed. Along with improving safety, they expect to see improvements with the connection to the waterfront in the area.

Along with changing the roads, they are planning a $2.9 million project to improve pedestrian safety. That could include a pedestrian overpass connecting the residential neighborhoods near Adams Road and Aaron Drive with Columbia Point Drive.

The details of that project will need to be approved by the city council.

“The acquisition of the funds to move this project forward occurred before the pandemic and was part of the normal long-term planning the city does,” Rogalsky said. “We’re going to follow through and look at this as a long-term issue.”

This story was originally published January 20, 2021 at 5:00 AM.